SK Telecom has tested interoperability between 5G Non Standalone (NSA) Core developed by Samsung Electronics and 5G base stations of Nokia and Ericsson.

SK Telecom engineers conducted the 5G test at the company’s 5G testbed located in its Bundang office building. SK Telecom worked with mobile operators, including AT&T and Orange, at 3GPP and NGMN to develop interfaces for interoperability between diverse multi-vendor 5G network equipment.

SK Telecom, which earlier selected Samsung Electronics, Ericsson and Nokia as preferred bidders for 5G equipment, has made efforts to apply and test the interfaces to achieve multi-vendor interoperability.

SK Telecom’s engineers can install base stations of Nokia and Ericsson within the coverage of Samsung’s 5G Core, ensuring a more flexible 5G network with greater efficiency.

SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics developed the 5G NSA Core for the trial. 5G NSA standard allows for operators to deploy 5G network by adding 5G features to the existing LTE core equipment.

SK Telecom has decided to also deploy new 5G NSA Core to further enhance both stability and quality of its 5G service, said Park Jin-hyo, head of ICT R&D Center at SK Telecom, in a statement.